CUNA Takes Issue With Corporate Rule Proposal

CUNA has serious concerns with several key parts of the proposed corporate credit union rule, including a limit on the number of corporates a credit union can belong to and encouraging a fee to entities not federally insured.

In the association's comment letter filed late Monday with the NCUA, it wrote that "only when an agency is directed by statute or imminent, overarching safety and soundness concerns should it impose regulatory limitations on activities that should otherwise be determined by the marketplace."

CUNA also took issue with the NCUA proposal under which expenses for NCUA Corporate Credit Union Stabilization Fund expenses would be shared among all members of corporate credit unions, including all federally insured credit unions and nonfederally insured credit unions.

CUNA said the proposal would not withstand judicial review and dismissed the agency's proposal to make the assessments voluntary was also problematic.

The association wrote that "merely labeling the assessments as 'voluntary' will not avoid the legal conflict, since the 'contributions' would be treated by NCUA and considered by those paying them as assessments, since the proposal would impose sanctions, e.g., the loss of corporate credit membership, if desired payments from a non-FICU member are not made in a timely manner."

CUNA also expressed concern about the provision in the proposed rule that would require corporate credit unions to establish risk management committees, which include one member who has no personal or professional relationships with the corporate.

The trade association contends that the NCUA shouldn't prescribe the role of that committee and the proposed rule doesn't distinguish between the roles of that committee and the supervisory committee.